The time that I Ate Crow.

No, I didn’t actually eat Crow. That’s gross….It’s a metaphor. It’s an old saying that means, “to be humiliated by having to admit ones defeats or mistakes.” What I learned was almost more painful (in the sense of self growth) than eating crow.

Every summer in high school I went to this leadership camp. It was for student leadership members in school – aka it was for nerds. Jk, they were all pretty rad.

Anyways, I remember showing up to the camp and going into the registration room. I was meeting my counselor and getting my badge and checking – in, etc. And from across the room, I heard the loudest, most obnoxious laugh I’ve never heard in my life. It was like nails on a chalkboard to me. I looked and OF COURSE, it came from a beautiful, skinny blonde cheerleader, with a bow in her hair and in her red uniform. I was instantly annoyed to my core.

You see, I like to think that I get along with most people, but I cheered in high school for one year. If you can’t tell right off the bat and I need to make it clear for you, I don’t fit the bill of your average cheerleader and it’s HILARIOUS that I actually did this. It was the worst year of my life.

There was an unbelievable amount of drama and it DROVE ME CRAZY. Don’t worry, I’m fine now. The year of cheerleading ended okay, I ended up being surprised by the girls and I’m actually to my surprise still friends with some of the girls that I was on a squad with. But I definitely didn’t go back for round two.

But at the time, that I heard that horrible laugh, I had a really bad taste in my mouth when it came to cheerleaders.

And ways, I saw this blonde cheerleading chick and was just so annoyed because everyone was flocking to her, especially the boys. ALL week, out of hundreds of students she was by far the loudest one in the room, her laugh would disrupt everything, she was always yelling, talking loudly. Always trying to get attention. It annoyed EVERY bone in my body.

At the end of the week, the day before we left, we had a special time of self-reflection. I honestly can’t remember what we specifically doing but I was sitting close to this girl and I just remember seeing her crying. I thought to myself, “I love Jesus and I guess I should be a good person and ask her if she’s okay.” I put my annoyance aside and decided to be a good person. Slightly annoyed I walked over and asked her if she was alright.

She started crying even more and we hugged and I asked her what she was crying about.

She told me that her mom had been in jail for the last few years and she didn’t know when she was going to be able to see her again or when she would get out and her dad was MIA and she didn’t really have any other family. Needless to say, she was suffering deeply from sadness and loneliness.

I instantly felt so badly for judging her. I realized why she was being so loud and trying to get so much attention, it was because she didn’t really have anyone close to her in her life.

This girl that I assumed had a family, tons of friends, and was super popular, with lots of money, actually had nothing.

We ended up having a bonding moment and I decided at that moment that I was going to try my hardest not to judge, or make any big assumptions about anyone before I really knew them. I’m not always perfect by any means but I try really hard.

When I start to judge someone the blonde cheerleader with the loud laugh and big bow in her hair frequently pops into my mind and I remember that I shouldn’t make assumptions about someone until I really get to know them.

My point in this story is, everyone wants to make judgments about people but not everyone wants to put in the time to get to know someone.

We love to make assumptions about God, but not everyone wants to get to know him.

We love to conclude that God is a certain way, just like we love to make assumptions about people) without actually asking Him.

We presume that He’s mean just because He doesn’t give us what we want, even when that’s whats best for us. We imagine that He judges us for the stuff that we do. We suspect that He’s going to leave us because that’s what humans normally do. The list goes on and on of things that we theorize to be correct about Him.

Let me end by asking you this question – what would it look like for you to put your assumptions of God aside and for you to fully get to know Him?

Fully get to know Him in the same way that you would get to know a friend.

It’s not about being perfect or living perfectly, it’s about having a REAL, personal, relationship with Jesus. Don’t put Him in boxes and conclude things about him, figure them out, ask him, know Him.